Capgemini India chief says 65% of IT employees not retrainable

With the domestic IT industry staring at a shift in nature of work due to increasing use of digital technologies, a leading firm has said a majority of the workforce cannot imbibe the required emerging skill-sets, and warned of high job losses at the middle and senior levels.

Probably, India will witness the largest unemployment in the middle level to senior level, said Capgemini India’s chief executive Srinivas Kandula. (Reuters)

With the domestic IT industry staring at a shift in nature of work due to increasing use of digital technologies, a leading firm has said a majority of the workforce cannot imbibe the required emerging skill-sets, and warned of high job losses at the middle and senior levels. “I am not very pessimistic, but it is a challenging task and I tend to believe that 60-65 per cent of them are just not trainable,” Capgemini India’s chief executive Srinivas Kandula said here over the weekend. The domestic arm of the French IT major employs nearly one lakh engineers in the country. “A large number of them cannot be trained. Probably, India will witness the largest unemployment in the middle level to senior level,” he said at the annual Nasscom leadership summit here over the weekend. He also flagged concerns surrounding the quality of IT workforce, saying much of the 3.9 million IT employees come from low-grade engineering colleges which do not follow rigorous grading patterns for students in their zeal to maintain good records.

The remarks come days after the industry lobby Nasscom said there is a need to re-train up to 1.5 million, or nearly half of its sectoral workforce. This is primarily on the back of a change in nature of work in newer, digital technologies. Kandula said the industry, driven by yield-seeking investors, has not invested enough to upgrade the skill-sets of its employees. He also said more number of students are now being hired from lower grade engineering colleges, which has ensured that the rise in wages has been negative by a huge margin.

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Kandula said as against offers of Rs 2.25 lakh per annum that used to go out for freshers two decades ago, they have risen only to Rs 3.5 lakh now, which suggests a massive decrease in real wages from an inflation-adjusted perspective.

“For some unknown reasons, we call it a knowledge- driven industry. If you have that kind of talent, and then making them learn the existing technology itself is such a huge challenge,” he said.

The quality of the students who are coming in is so bad that many of them are not able to answer, when asked about the subjects taught to them when they were in the final semester of their engineering degrees, he said.

The critical remarks come months after a study found out that as much as 80 per cent of engineering graduates are unemployable.

Kandula had last week told PTI that his company would shift focus to hiring freshers from the laterals earlier due to the newer skill-sets which are required and the ease of training which the freshers offer. He, however, had maintained that the company will continue to hire.

Don't worry folks, the law is WITH the employees. "Some of India's most controversial labour laws concern the procedures for dismissal contained in the Industrial Disputes Act 1947. A workmen who has been emplo for over a year can only be dismissed if permission is sought from and granted by the appropriate government office.[27] Additionally, before dismissal, valid reasons must be given, and there is a wait of at least two months for government permission, before a lawful termination can take effect. Redundancy pay must be given, set at 15 days' average pay for each complete year of continuous service. An employee who has worked for 4 years in addition to various notices and due process, must be paid a minimum of the employee's wage equivalent to 60 days before retrenchment, if the government grants the employer a permission to lay off.A permanent worker can be terminated only for proven misconduct or for habitual absence.[28] The Industrial Disputes Act (1947) requires companies employing more than 100 workers to seek government approval before they can fire employees or close down.[5] In practice, permissions for firing employees are seldom granted.[5] Indian laws require a company to get permission for dismissing workers with plant closing, even if it is necessary for economic reasons. The government may grant or deny permission for closing, even if the company is losing money on the operation.[29]The dismissed worker has a right to appeal, even if the government has granted the dismissal application. Indian labour regulations provide for a number of appeal and adjudicating authorities – conciliation officers, conciliation boards, courts of inquiry, labour courts, industrial tribunals and the national industrial tribunal – under the Industrial Disputes Act.[30] These involve complex procedures. Beyond these labour appeal and adjucating procedures, the case can proceed to respective State High Court or finally the Supreme Court of India."

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md

Feb 20, 2017 at 5:34 pm

No need to worry folks, LAW is on our side. CITU has already welcomed IT employees to become their member (rumor by ncom that IT cannot join trade union is fake). Abt Indian labor law "Some of India's most controversial labour laws concern the procedures for dismissal contained in the Industrial Disputes Act 1947. A workmen who has been emplo for over a year can only be dismissed if permission is sought from and granted by the appropriate government office.[27] Additionally, before dismissal, valid reasons must be given, and there is a wait of at least two months for government permission, before a lawful termination can take effect. Redundancy pay must be given, set at 15 days' average pay for each complete year of continuous service. An employee who has worked for 4 years in addition to various notices and due process, must be paid a minimum of the employee's wage equivalent to 60 days before retrenchment, if the government grants the employer a permission to lay off.A permanent worker can be terminated only for proven misconduct or for habitual absence.[28] The Industrial Disputes Act (1947) requires companies employing more than 100 workers to seek government approval before they can fire employees or close down.[5] In practice, permissions for firing employees are seldom granted.[5] Indian laws require a company to get permission for dismissing workers with plant closing, even if it is necessary for economic reasons. The government may grant or deny permission for closing, even if the company is losing money on the operation.[29]The dismissed worker has a right to appeal, even if the government has granted the dismissal application. Indian labour regulations provide for a number of appeal and adjudicating authorities – conciliation officers, conciliation boards, courts of inquiry, labour courts, industrial tribunals and the national industrial tribunal – under the Industrial Disputes Act.[30] These involve complex procedures. Beyond these labour appeal and adjucating procedures, the case can proceed to respective State High Court or finally the Supreme Court of India."

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S Srikrishna

Feb 19, 2017 at 3:12 pm

This disclosure sets the stage for easy dismissal of IT employees. GOI must proactively intervene to address/mitigate the risk to the employees.

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Ghajabiram

Feb 19, 2017 at 3:21 pm

Honest essment by Capegemini chief. I'm past 5 to 7 years recruitment quality has been pathetic. A large section of recruits are not made for IT (may be good in arts or something) and no interest to commit to work.

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Himanshu Dashore

Feb 20, 2017 at 4:59 am

I have 2 year's experience in

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Murthy MVS

Feb 20, 2017 at 6:29 am

That doesn't sound well to me. Fundamentally am confused with the perspective, is the issue with people not being trainable or the quality of new recruits is poor. In my view people are trainable and we cannot write them off to the level 65%, instead find out the attributes within that 65% which accounts for absolute lack of atude, age related, no visibility of technology roadmap etc. This can be better tackled with then! Secondly while we cannot control the generation of engineering colleges and number of students ping out every year, we can definitely look at improving the quality of the output from these colleges which according to me is an controllable act. Some part can be pla by HRD ministry by bringing in more rigor and regulations secondly industry as a party of CSR(or whatever you name it as) can collaborate to bring in changes in content, pedagogy and essment parameters etc. These are absolutely my views and responding in the interest of seeing the change on the ground.

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Prasenjit

Feb 21, 2017 at 5:01 am

I have seen people always wanting to learn new technologies but they are not allowed to by the management. The point that employees are not re-trainable is merely an excuse for impending lay off. The idea simply is to keep low ried employees, make them deliver by making them work 10 hrs per day and earn a bigger profit.

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Ranji

Feb 21, 2017 at 8:34 am

It should be treated as a confession , not opinion. If the senior leadership does not have the foresightedness & agility to manage this risk and prepare the workforce under them , its a failure from them also. Typical IT service companies give seldom chance to look in to future technology til they get billing. Everyone should also realize the new gen IT project opportunities and its dynamics. Gone the era of 100 team size and multi year contracts . and room for those "decorative/ name sake non productive roles". Applicability of LEAN & Agile should be for a purpose , not for decoration

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Santosh R

Feb 19, 2017 at 9:50 am

The article talks about mid to senior level , which is average 10 years experience. All these years they have been working but till now nobody complained. All of a sudden, the work force becomes untrainable. If at all there is a change that s required, it's the change in thinking and not people. Companies are to be blamed to hire them in first place.

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Bratin

Mar 4, 2017 at 4:05 pm

sadly our education system, down from school level trains to cram only and teaching them how to learn. Autonomous and active learner are splendid coinage only in the curriculum doent.